World Series Appearances Sometimes Become Win or Else

A World Series warning to the Twins and Braves: In the minds of some owners, just making it into the World Series is not enough.

After the New York Yankees rolled over the Brooklyn Dodgers, four games to one, in the 1941 World Series, Dodger owner Larry MacPhail put his entire team of 25 players on waivers.

MacPhail tried to work a deal to sell the entire team to the St. Louis Browns, one of the worst teams in baseball.

The players refused to take the stunt seriously, but MacPhail was in deadly earnest. Only lack of proper financing prevented the St. Louis owner, Don Barnes, from buying the entire team.

Trivia Time: What hockey team did New York Ranger teammates Mark Messier and Mike Gartner both formerly play for?

From court to court: There was more than one appointment to the high court this week. Kevin Duckworth of the Portland Trail Blazers was elected the first judge of the team’s Kangaroo Court.

The court is the brainchild of Coach Rick Adelman, who thought the Blazers needed a way to enforce team rules and policies in an upbeat setting.

Each player and coach, along with the team trainer, will be subject to fines as high as $25.

Judges are to be chosen on a rotating basis and will serve one-month terms.

Team members will submit infractions to the court, which will be in session “probably mostly during our team flights,� Adelman said.

Add court: At the first meeting, Duckworth fined Alaa Abdelnaby and Mark Bryant $1 each for wearing tiny tennis socks to practice. Bryant, taking pains to follow the law, showed up at the next practice with knee-length socks.

“I nominated Duck because I thought he’d be one of the most just judges,� Danny Ainge said. “It turns out he is very soft.�

Good riddance: Dallas Maverick center James Donaldson has finally let it be known, in no uncertain terms, just what the Mavericks thought about teammate Roy Tarpley’s many unexplained absences.

“We finally have had it,� he said. “It’s at a point where the team just can’t take it anymore.

“We’re even to a point of all of us players putting our money together and rounding together $3 million and just get him out of here for the season, and let us get on with the season and redeem ourselves for the problems we had last year.�

Days later, Tarpley’s behavior culminated in a lifetime suspension from the NBA for violating the league’s drug policy.

Dress for success: Coach Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears tried wearing a tie on the sidelines, hoping it would influence his behavior for the better.

Now, Detroit Red Wing enforcer Bob Probert says he’ll be staying out of fights this season, if he wears the 1920s replica sweater that the original six teams are wearing to celebrate the league’s 75th anniversary.

Asked about the classic jersey that Probert wore on opening night, he said: “I was hoping not to fight. I want to keep that sweater nice so I can frame it when we’re done using it. I don’t want any blood on it, at least not my own.�

Farewell?Bobby Bonilla, who has not had many nice things to say about his team recently, appeared to choke back tears Thursday when asked the one question he apparently dreaded.

Was the defeat by Atlanta in Game 7 of the National League championship series his last game in a Pittsburgh Pirate uniform?

“I was just sitting down drinking an iced tea and I started thinking about that, thinking really hard,� Bonilla said, pausing to calm himself. “Crazier things have happened. I might be back. It looks like I won’t be, but I might be.�

Bonilla, who will be a free agent this winter, batted .304 during the playoffs but had no home runs and just one run batted in.

“More than anything, I will miss the city, and the fellas,� Bonilla said. “This place has been just great.�

Trivia answer: Both played on the same line for the Cincinnati Stingers in the old World Hockey Assn.

Quotebook: Texas football Coach David McWilliams, about the end of the Longhorns’ storied series against Arkansas: “It’s not a real sadness, but a football sadness. Not sad-sad like if my cat was gone. It’s not that kind of a sadness.�